WORLD PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE ORASHI COALITON FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE (OCGG) CALLING ON DR DAKUKU ADOL PETERSIDE TO RUN FOR THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR RIVERS STATE IN THE FORTHCOMING 2019 ELECTIONS HOLDING ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2018 AT AHOADA TOWN, RIVERS STATE NIGERIA
PROTOCOLS,
Good morning Gentlemen of the press, distinguished ladies and gentlemen.
As you are aware, political activities are beginning to pick up again across the country as we draw closer to the periodic general elections that will be due in 2019.
We have therefore summoned you to the historic town of Ahoada to be part of history as we take deliberate steps in the directions that we believe will bring the needed development to the people of the Orashi Region. Our recent experiences have awakened us to the brutal and palpable truth that neither politics nor its consequences are escapable and that whether we as a people will be blown to smithereens or will design political arrangements that enable our communities to survive is now being determined by politics and politicians.
BRIEF INTRODUCTION
The Orashi Region comprises of four Local Government Areas of the Old Ahoada LGA namely: Abua-Obual, Ahoada East, Aboada West, and Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni local Government Areas respectively.
The region holds a strategic place in the petro-dollar funded economy of Nigeria and is host to a number of multi-national Oil Companies such as Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Niger Delta Petroleum Resources (NDPR); Total E&P Nigeria Limited; Nigeria Agip Oil Company Limited (NAOC) and several other subsidiaries. It is blessed with abundant arable land mass as well as aquatic resources as embodied by the Orashi and Sombreiro rivers.
As the Fourth Republic unfolded, the region was given the opportunity to produce the first executive Governor of Rivers state. Dr Peter Odili, who is from Ndoni community of ONELGA who served an uninterrupted double four-year tenure between 1999 and 2007.
Orashi Coalition for Good Governance (OCGG) is a sociopolitical group of vibrant men and women from the Orashi region (Abua/Odual, Ahoada East, Ahoada West and Ogba Egbema Ndoni Local Government Areas) of Rivers State who have resolved to lend their voices towards the return of good governance especially as it relates to the enthronement of justice, peace and development of Rivers state and the oil rich Orashi Region in particular.
As progressives, we share in the ideals of the All Progressives Congress, especially its resolve to restore and sustain harmony amongst the multi-ethnic and culturally heterogeneous people of Rivers state through equity and power rotation. Hence, we are completely in tune with the drive to elect a riverine governor in 2019.
We Should Not Be Burnt Twice By The Same Flame
The current political leadership in Rivers state pushed itself into being, against existing structures of social justice, progress and stability. After running a campaign littered with vituperations and bile against the regime of former Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and a promise to make Rivers state an El Dorado, no meaningful story of progress has been recorded in the Orashi region since 2015 apart from the savage harvest of human heads and the destruction of once bubbly communities. The names “Igbudu” and Don Wanney that pooped up within this ugly era will for a long time remind us of how hundreds of our young people were hijacked and transformed into cold hearted killer machines, how our rivers became soiled with the blood of our own people, how our farm lands became mass graves, how our forests became militant camps, how our villages became ghost towns and how our people became refugees in strange lands.
Though it is said that the people deserve the government they get, our experiences since 2015 may have been given to us as a lesson but whatever will happen to us in 2019 is a choice!
Dr Dakuku Adol Peterside, the Knight in Shining Armour!
In the midst of the gloom and despair that ominously hovers over the political environment of Rivers state and the Orashi Region in particular, the Orashi Coalition For Good Governance (OCGG), having rigorously looked at all the necessary political elements across the length and breadth of Rivers state have resolved to call on the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the 2015 General Elections, Dr Dakuku Adol Peterside to seek for the nomination of the APC gubernatorial ticket for 2019 general elections and ready himself to lead the Rivers people to prosperity. We have already put machinery in place to raise money for the purchase of his nomination form.
Why we want Dakuku Dakuku
1.Loyalty is a good virtue and a prerequisite for people-centered public service- If government is a contract as opined by respected theorists, it requires faithful people who can maintain fidelity to the covenant between electorate and the elected. The unflinching and long standing loyalty he has demonstrated in his relationship with Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the leader of the APC in the South-South gives us the promise of a servant-leader for the people of Rivers state.
2. His candidacy is in tandem with equity and justice and also agrees with the arrangement of the APC in Rivers state to zone the governorship to the Riverine areas of the state. As Orashi people, we support the principle of zoning and rotation of public offices especially in a diverse environment as ours because without it our brother, father and leader, Dr Peter Odili who is from a very small community couldn’t have become governor. We agree in Toto that the Upland people having produced governors since 1999 are morally bound to support someone from the riverine communities to ascend to the Brick House in 2019.
3.Epitome of peace- There may be different perceptions to the life and times person of this Ibani born politician, however, everybody agrees that he is a man of peace and humility. More than anyone else, we in the Orashi region appreciate the value of peace in our villages towns and cities. Recently, American diplomats who visited Governor Wike told him point blank that no investor is willing to bring a cent of investment into Rivers state until the issue of violence is completely dealt with. This is coming on the heels of the recent declaration by the National Bureau of statistics that Rivers state has the highest unemployment rate in the country.
4.Political Experience- First appointed Special Adviser on Student Affairs in 1999, Dr Dakuku maintained an unbroken presence around government till date. If he becomes governor, too much time would not be wasted on acclimatization and learning on the job.
5.Development footprints in the Orashi- As commissioner of Works, the number of projects sited and completed around the four LGAs of Orashi remain unparalleled. If your diligence and commitment to duty as commission for works can give us these projects listed below, we have no doubt that a mighty transformation awaits our region with you in charge of the Brick House.
Some of the projects which we have been blessed with under your watch as commissioner of Works between 2007 t0 2011 include:
Abua- Odual
a.Omokwa-Otarir-Odaga ring road
b.Emilighan New Lay-out
Ahoada-East
a.Hospital Road to Odiemerenyi road bye-pass,
b.Civil Defence road (Cohisa bye-pass),
c.Ubie street,
d. Umuzhi Street,
e.Edhiwulu street,
f.Onugboji street and adjourning streets,
g.Abuja street,
h.School road (old GTC road)
Ahoada West
a.Odiereke-Ubie-Oshiobele road,
b.Ogbolobolo-Oyakama link road
c.Okogbe Internal roads
d.Reconstruction/expansion of Mbiama-Akinima road with culverts and bridge
e.Ula-Ubie-Odiokwu road
f.Ihuechi Community road
Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni
a.Idu-Krigeni-Aligu-Omoku road
b.Sambo and several other Omoku internal street roads
6. Firsthand Knowledge of the region- Apart from having cordial relationship with several leaders from Orashi, Dr Dakuku knows the communities and terrain personally. This would help him to plan effectively for the development of the region.
7.Empathy for the people of Orashi- While the bloodletting lasted in the Orashi, Dr Dakuku remained vocal, fearlessly condemning the dastardly actions of murdering gangs in the region while persistently investing time and resources towards the restoration of peace, he relentlessly reached out to victims of the violence with generosity.
8.Hope for Education- Even with a very tight schedule, Dakuku has climbed to the zenith of academic pursuit with a doctor of philosophy in Organizational Behavior with specialization in political strategy from the University of Port Harcourt. With this demonstration for the love of knowledge, Dakuku is the man to end the arrested development in the education sector of Rivers state and to bring back massive investment of resources in the area of knowledge and capacity building as witnessed in the Amaechi era. We look forward to seeing a government that would be interested in building young people with global abilities and network through overseas scholarships and training rather than the recent move by the Nyesom Wike government to arm youths in the name of Neighborhood watch.
9.The NIMASA example: Dakuku has always left indelible foot prints at every juncture of responsibility since his walk through public service, little wonder he is said to have the Midas touch. We believe that if he can lower operational cost by 50% and at the same time remit an unprecedented sum of 20,000,000,000,000(twenty billion Naira) to the federal coffers among other achievements now referred to as the “NIMASA miracle” in this space of time that he has held sway at Nigeria’s maritime regulating agency, he has the creative prowess and financial discipline needed to create peace and prosperity for Rivers people.
Once again, thank you for coming.
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